Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation (26 page)

“Nothing but commotion so far,” McDowell answered. “But
something’s happening to our scaly friends out there and they’re scheming between
each other, preparing, but for what I don’t know. I’m leaning on the side of
caution and having my men tighten ranks around the building; keeping their eyes
open for an advance force of intruders. We’ll fight them if we have to.”

Henry peered up at the sky. “It’ll be dark soon. If
they wait to attack until it is full night, it’ll be difficult to repel them.”

“Don’t I know it, Chief Ranger. Let’s hope they’re
only sounding off, chattering, albeit loudly, among the trees. But it doesn’t
come across like that to me. Sounds like war drums.”

As if to punctuation what McDowell had just said, a
piercing series of dinosaur howls ripped through the air above them, followed
by a hellish chorus of echoing replies coming from all across the park.

“How
many
are out there, you think?” Justin was
listening intently. “Sounds like hundreds.”

“Heaven help us,” Steven, who’d slipped out to join
them, whispered.

Henry’s stare included the people around him. Some
of them were frightened. Their faces, their twitchy movements, showed it. Even
McDowell appeared edgy. The dinosaur’s trumpeting could do that to a person. In
the gloom of the dense forest around them the cries seemed unearthly. The
danger surreal. But it wasn’t. Oh, it wasn’t.

“What do you suppose they’re up to?” Steven wanted
to know. “Why are they making so much noise?”

“They’re communicating,” Justin supplied
thoughtfully during a lull in the cacophony. “And whatever they’re squawking
about we’ll learn of here before long.”

The soldiers hurried to take positions, weapons clutched
in their hands. The tanks were in place, circled around the building, their
turrets unmoving and pointed towards the sounds. The machine guns silent. Waiting.
Like the people.

The world fell quiet.

Minutes went by. Henry held his breath. Everyone
around him held theirs. The last of the light pulsed out. The dark had come.

“What, is that all? They serenade us until our
heads hurt and then just stop?” Steven griped. “Some sort of psychological
torture? They smart enough to do that?”

Justin said, “Smart enough and more–.”

“
Ssssh!
” Henry’s hands rose and dropped in a
curt gesture. “Listen. Something’s coming.”

And it was true. Something–an army of somethings–was
advancing on ranger headquarters. A stampede of invisible enemies in the dark. Branches
were snapping. Trees were breaking. The ground was shaking. The dinosaurs began
to cry out again. Closer now.

We’re sitting ducks out here, Henry thought.
Nothing between us and an attacking force except a couple of outbuildings and
the walls of headquarters. Something has to be done about that and soon.

A rock hit him hard in the cheek under his left
eye. “
Ouch! Damn! What the–
” His hand went up and touched a trickle of
blood. Then another larger rock or clump of dirt hit his right shoulder, spun
him around, and nearly knocked him to his knees.

And around him there was a rain of stones, sticks
and compressed dirt clods. Dinosaur bombs.

Steven and Justin both yelled, raising their arms
as protection against the natural missiles.

The crazy dinosaurs were throwing things at them!
Henry thought, shocked. Again. What was it with these smaller dinos that they
barraged them with pieces of earth?

Wow, he’d have to be sure to warn the men not to
leave any rifles laying around. What would happen if the red dinosaurs could
use them, too? He could almost imagine little dinosaur claws grasped around the
gun stocks and pulling on the triggers.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Beady dinosaur
eyes squinting and lining up the shots.
Got another human! Dead center.
Yeah!
Yikes.

For a time, with his rangers fighting beside him,
Henry lifted his MP7 and shot at as many attacking beasts as he could. Killed
some. But the creatures were fast and it was hard to hit them in the dark,
especially the small ones as they infiltrated the grounds, some getting as
close as the sidewalks in front of the building or sneaking around the corners.

While the tanks’ cannons were doing much more
damage against the dinosaurs. The soldiers snuggled inside the metal vehicles
were protected far better than Henry and his men. And the soldiers fighting
outside the tanks had body armor and helmets on. His men didn’t.

So after two of his rangers were clawed and bitten,
and one knocked unconscious by a huge rock, he lifted his arm and shouted, “Rangers,
get in the building! Now!” Henry turned and ran through the door. His men with
him, except for McDowell, who joined her soldiers behind the tanks.

Once inside the bombardment grew worse. Rocks and
pieces of trees were hurled at the outside stone walls. Boulders. The sound of
the hits ricocheted through the building. It was like being in a bomb shelter
as the bombs fell.

Outside the gun and cannon fire became a groundswell.
The soldiers were shooting furiously at something. The tanks’ big guns thundered
into the darkness. The ground jumped.

Beyond the window Henry saw what he hadn’t wanted
to see. There were dinosaurs, of all sizes and species, charging from every
direction. Lobbing earth shrapnel at the building, the machines, and the humans
stationed or fighting around them.

The tanks’ cannons and machine guns were firing
into the scaly melee but it was hard to tell if it was doing any good. There
were so many of the creatures jumping, hopping and bouncing about; some
throwing themselves at the outside walls of headquarters itself. Dinosaur projectiles.
Splat, splat, splat!

He’d seen so much since the dinosaur epic had begun–Godzillas,
swimming leviathans, flying gargoyles and herds of raptor-like rock-tossing
creatures…but this beat all. A synchronized and organized direct assault from a
dinosaur army. Who or what, Henry speculated, was giving the orders? Hmmm.

Henry told the rangers inside to guard the
entrances, the windows and the doors in case any of the dinosaurs found a way
in. “Have your weapons, your rifles ready. And let’s further secure the windows
by nailing iron bars across them.” He was glad he’d ordered the iron grills,
though he hadn’t had them installed yet, for the windows when the structure had
been rebuilt. Just in case. Good thing he had. “The bars are in the rear
storage room. The glass in our windows are triple-paned, extra strength but they
won’t hold up if a large enough dinosaur tries to smash through one of them.”

As Henry uttered the words a dinosaur visage,
hissing, jaws wide open, teeth gleaming, filled a window near him. It wasn’t
one of the largest monsters, thank goodness, but it was large enough. It stood so
tall it had to stoop to stare in at him. Glaring in hungrily, it snarled and scraped
massive claws along the glass, then beat them violently against it. The window
cracked but didn’t break. Even in the dark it was an ugly sucker. Oversized
head, tiny eyes. Big sharp fangs.

It’d be the first window to be covered.

He felt like a fish in a bowl. Big hungry monster
eying him. Licking its lips, uh, incisors. Wanting to devour him. Dinosaurs!
They were all alike. No arguing with any one of them, all they wanted to do was
maim you or have a piece of you for supper.

He wanted so badly to lift his MP7 and blow its hideous
head off. But couldn’t. The creature hadn’t broken through the window and there
was no way he was going to make it easy for it. Instead he slunk up against the
wall, so the thing could no longer see him, and dropped the blinds down. He
could hear it screeching, banging at the glass but after a minute or so it
stopped. Moving on, he suspected, to another square of glass where it could see
its potential meal.

The other rangers, taking his lead, started taking
down the blinds and curtains and hammering up the iron grills across the
windows. For a while the pounding sound of hammers accompanied the bedlam of
the attacking force.

“Henry, what’s going on?” Ann was standing behind
him when he turned. Her hair mussed up from her nap. Her pale face lined with anxiety
and her hands fidgeting at her side. She did that when she was upset or
frightened. “Henry?”

He told her. Then he gently placed his hand on her
shoulder and guided her back to his office. It was safer there. More walls
between her and the monsters trying to break in.

“So we’re under siege, huh?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Tenacious bastards aren’t they?” She settled down
on the couch. Her eyes on the windows as Henry closed the curtains over the
dark glass. It was only a matter of time before the beasts found their way to
the rear of the building and began their onslaught there as well. The good
thing about that section of the structure was it was fortified by towering
trees lined up behind it. A natural fence.

But Henry knew sooner or later the dinosaurs would find
a way to slither in between the trees there as well.

“Very.”

Another round of gunfire came and went. Henry hoped
they were killing a bunch of the creatures. Only good dinosaur was a dead one.

Ann was staring at the curtained window. “Who’s
winning?”

“So far? We are. We have soldiers, tanks and
cannons.” He grinned and sat down beside her, put his arm around her. He
couldn’t leave his men alone too long, there were things he had to do, a war
going on, but he could spare a minute for his scared wife. His scared sick
wife.

“Have you heard or seen anything of Ellie or Ranger
Kiley yet?” That frown of hers had returned.

“No, honey. I’m sorry. No sign of them yet. And,”
he added, “it’d be really difficult for them to slide into home now, what with
the war going on outside.”

“No phone call, nothing?”

He shook his head. “But I’m sure they’re probably holed
up somewhere like we are; waiting for the coast to be clear. Kiley and Stanton
can take care of themselves. I know they’re okay. We will see them again.
You’ll see.”

Her lack-luster reaction let him know she didn’t
believe what he said. Her face swung away from him and the air seemed to go out
of her.

The shrieking of the dinosaurs rose to a feverish
pitch and subsided as weapon fire matched its volume. The cannons, MP7’s, M4
Carbines, AK-47’s and rifles boomed into the night. The dinosaurs boomed back.
Bigger rocks. More aggressive claw-to-hand raids.

“I’m scared,” Ann mouthed against Henry’s chest
after he’d drawn her to him. “Are we going to get through this alive this time,
or is this the end?”

“We will get through it. I have no doubt
whatsoever. We are smarter than those ugly bastards outside, and we’re safe
behind these strong walls.” And well they should be. Years ago when the first
dinosaur destroyed headquarters, even though no one would have ever thought they’d
have to face another prehistoric rampage again, Henry had made sure the new
building had been as monster proof as he could arrange. He’d insisted on double
or triple strength everything. He had made sure the foundation was fortified
with concrete, steel and rock. Because deep in his mind he’d reasoned:
If
the dinosaurs ever return they won’t get in here. They won’t demolish this
headquarters like they did the last one.

Thank goodness for his foresight.

“Can I still go home and get the things we’ll need
if we have to stay here for a while?” Ann looked at him, waiting for an answer.
“If I have to make this office our home?” She looked around the sparse room, a
flicker of distaste in her eyes.

“Ann, I don’t know. If we can fend off this attack,
kill enough of them, I’ll ask McDowell if we can go for a ride tomorrow in the
daylight to fetch what we need in one of the tanks. We’ll just have to see.”

She nodded, accepting what he said without
argument. Which was unlike Ann. But then the unusual and perilous situation warranted
no debate. Ann was an intelligent woman. It was what it was and she knew that.
Their safety came first.

Henry rose. “I have to get out there with my men.”

“I know. Go on.” She got up, too. “I’m coming. I
want to be in the thick of the action.”

“Taking notes, huh, so you can write about this
when it’s over?”

“You might say that.” She started to smile but the
sound of the guns cut it off.

A humongous thump reverberated across the room
followed by an ear-shattering roar.

“That must have been a big rock,” she said. “Man, they’re
resourceful, aren’t they?”

“Next thing we know,” Henry bellyached, “they’ll be
digging tunnels under the ground to get to us.”

“Ech, don’t say that. Don’t even think it.” Ann
visibly shuddered. “And not out loud.” Her finger pointed towards the window.
“They might hear you.” She flashed him a mischievous smirk.

Henry walked across to the gun rack and handed her
a Bushmaster semi-automatic. “In case.”

“In case,” she repeated and cradled the rifle in her
arms as if she’d been born with it there. As always, it occurred to him,
looking at the fragile, slender woman with the short blond gray-streaked hair and
the soft gray eyes that seemed to see everything, she was nothing if not a
courageous woman. A brave woman, his wife.